


Into the Storm

by renardroi



Category: Campaign (Podcast)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, I tried to stick to the actual canonical events but its hard, It's from Tony's POV, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-15 15:34:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11808939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renardroi/pseuds/renardroi
Summary: (i decided to separate this from the other one sorry !)The green creature on his back summons a storm at its fingertips, thunder and lightning arcing across his fur much too close to his face - but it doesn't hurt, mercifully. It seems like a warning - akin to his sister's growling and needling when he's out of line.





	Into the Storm

He doesn't have a name, at the start. None of his family does. They live together on the mountainside, where they can watch the edges of the forest and hunt among the shrubs and bushes, and they call to each other when they wander. They call home. It's not a name but maybe it's close.

The mountain offers them peace, higher ground and an easy escape from less sure-footed packs, as well as a view of the forest. They don't often wander close, but sometimes they stand and stare at the edge of it, waiting for something. Their mother has always forbidden them from entering, but every year it seems like they inch closer, watching from the relative safety of shrubbery . The forest is so eerily...empty. It's teeming with life of course, they can smell it, and see it sometimes, when a grazer risks stepping out of the protection of the trees. But it feels empty. Something's missing.

It's an early spring when they get just a taste of what that might be. The days are getting warmer, the winter storms have just barely passed and the warmer spring ones are closing in, and something falls from the sky. It's not really that unusual, the boulders that fall to earth, but they've never come this close to the mountain. And...it's there. It's landed just beyond their territory.  

When his sister comes back from the edges of their home and she has a peculiar scent in her fur and the same wild look in her eyes that they all do, they know. They've felt it, the same way they can smell the rain before it falls, they can feel something. And even though only the night before they ate and ate well, they hunt. It's a new and strange hunt for all but their mother, who walks like she knows what they'll find. She is grim and silent, they all are, up until they find the huge swath of land that smells like changing weather, the first storm of spring. Only then do they howl for the hunt.

It goes very poorly.

There's a pup - and they know that this is what they're hunting as soon as they see him - he doesn't look as strange as the others. A pup, furless and on two legs, and it looks as if his barbs have grown in on the wrong end. The girls, clever hunters as they are, try to grab him and run; mother distracts while his sister, still meek and cautious after being chased off, sneaks behind. The pup's family are the real danger, however, so his father charges the big one, nipping at it's heels and trying to drag it down, which leaves the other two for he and his brother. Trying to mimic sister and mother, they go after the skinny thing with a green hide, the only one that doesn't have that unusually flat face, sporting a little snout like them.

He lunges for the green creature, snapping his teeth and trying to herd it. He misses, and it reaches for him, wrapping a limb around his neck. The momentum from the attempted attack carries him forward, and the creature clings to his back with a mean grip. Staggering under the sudden weight and panicking, he casts about for his brother - looking for aid - but his brother has disappeared. He turns and all he sees is father standing over the big one, watches as it retaliates, hears his father howl in agony. Father falls.

The green creature on his back summons a storm at its fingertips, thunder and lightning arcing across his fur much too close to his face - but it doesn't hurt, mercifully. It seems like a warning - akin to his sister's growling and needling when he's out of line. He hesitates, still twisting around to try and unseat the thing, but eventually listens. The creature yanks on his fur and he turns, guided towards the pup they were supposed to be hunting. As he charges his would-be meal, he spots his mother, laid out on the ground behind the pup, but despite his fear and his grief the storm at his back spurns him forward and he goes. He starts to pick the pup up by one of its limbs and drag it, but he gets another little spark and carefully lifts it by the scruff of its loose hide. He takes the pup, and with little encouragement sprints towards their boulder - their cave. His sister starts to give chase, but seems reluctant, stumbling uncertainly and then charging one of the others instead.

From behind him, he hears her make a strangled whimper, and knows she's fallen as well. He is thankful, at least, that his brother has the good sense to turn tail.  

The den they have is smaller than it seems, and he skitters to an awkward halt just at the entrance, drooling on the pup while his stomach rumbles and he paces. The creatures argue amongst themselves, shouting - obviously about the pup. There are barbs all across its back and neck - they smell like they might be his sister's. The tall one - their father, perhaps - has the barbs as well, but seems less affected. Like their larger prey, he struggles to walk, and could not flee if he needed to. He still seems fully in charge, though, barking angrily and leading them into the den. There's a flurry of activity as they fret over the pup in the cluttered space, and almost as an afterthought the green creature shoves him into a small part of the den which is then closed off. 

He panics, terrified that they mean to leave him in this hole, and claws desperately at the walls. He does this until he shakes from exhaustion, and resigns himself to his fate. 

Of course, when the exit is unblocked, much later, he expects the worst - surely they're angry with him for trying to eat their pup. He's too busy trying to figure out if he prefers the long slow death of starvation or whatever they plan on doing with him that he doesn't see the green hand that reaches for him. All of the sudden he is being touched with a gentleness that he never could have anticipated from something with the power to summon disaster and pain on a whim. Apparently it's come back for him, deciding that maybe he's worth saving - worth keeping, and giving a tentative spot in their weird little pack. The storm pets his head gently, even as he collapses on the ground tiredly, speaking to him. It doesn't say home, it says Tony. 

Tony warily decides to follow the storm. 


End file.
